Chapter 30
Mei
Reed sets me on the side of the pool and sinks below the surface.
For a moment, I think I’ll stay on the side where it’s safe, but I trust him to be there, so I push off, sinking into the cold water, and like I predict, his hands slide over my hips, dragging me to his chest as we rise out of the water.
He spins us around and around, then laughs.
The sound is like pure music.
I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in his neck and shoulder.
“Thank you for knowing it was me,” I say softly. I’m still not sure how he knew, but there’s a spot in my chest that is light and warm because of what he did.
His hands stroke my back in soothing circles.
“Of course, I would know it’s you.”
Lirin fake coughs. “I knew, too.”
I muffle a laugh into Reed's shoulder.
“Sure, you did,” Reed growls.
Lirin slides into the water. I hear the softest splash, and then he’s pressed against my back, his mouth trailing down the side of my neck. He pulls at my clothes, exposing more skin.
There is nothing rushed or urgent, it’s just a soft, teasing touch, one that starts a warmth in my belly. Not a fire, no, this is moderated, controlled, a heat that comes like the tides.
“Come on, out now. Food’s ready.”
Lirin is the one to spin me around, lift me in his arms, and carry me up the stairs and out of the water. We end up in the kitchen where I’m slowly stripped out of my clothes and wrapped in a robe that feels like fur. I stroke it and purr in delight.
Leaf guides me into the lounge and pulls me down next to him, while Brio kneels beside me and pops morsels of food into my mouth.
The flavour explodes with cheesy, melting goodness. I was going to ask what they are, but every time I open my mouth, another piece is placed against my lips. They are hot and delicious and now one of my favourite things to eat.
“One night, I want to try this dish called tuna mornay,” Lirin says conversationally. “I saw it on a cooking show.”
I frown. “What is a tuna mornay?”
“It’s a cheese, tuna, white sauce dish with corn, and you put it on pasta. Or bake it in a casserole dish.”
It actually sounds really nice, but then I am discovering one of the best parts of living with humans is their incredible ability to create delicious food.
“That does sound good, but I want to try a BLT. I’m still not exactly sure what it is, but it looks amazing,” Reed says.
“I want to see the oceans here. We haven’t had a chance to explore, and there is so much to see.”
A pang hits me hard. I won’t be able to go with them. They belong in the oceans, and I don’t.
“What about you, Leaf?”
My dragon grumbles a sound. “I want to see Mei free.”
There’s a heavy silence.
Free. Not hunted. I inhale deeply, just thinking about it.
What would that look like? What could I do? If I were free, what food could I eat, and what places could I explore?
“Yeah, that’s a good one,” Brio agrees. “But I still would like to see one of these human symphonies.”
There’s a future here for us, for all of us. I try to imagine it, and it comes so easily. We will be like nomads travelling the world, learning everything and fighting monsters. We would see all the sights, and listen to all the music, try all the food.
One thought comes to me stronger than all others, and I say it before I can think it through.
“I want to have a barbecue with Becky.”
“What?” Lirin shrieks, outraged. “Them? What about me?”
“You all have to be there, too. All of us, and Diablos and Hartley. Like…friends. Like family.”
Reed squeezes my ankle and strokes it gently in a soothing caress.
“You can have anything you want, Mei. We’ll see it done. Somehow.” Canto gets up and comes closer, his calm confidence suddenly makes me sure that it’s possible, that anything could be possible.
He kneels before me, and before I can protest, he’s got something that smells wickedly sweet pressed against my lips.
“What is that?” I murmur and dart my tongue out, touching it.
“This is chocolate.”
I open my mouth, and he pops it in. It’s hard but soft, and it melts in my mouth. The flavour is unlike anything I’ve ever tried. I want more of it.
He hands me another one.
“This one has strawberry filling.”
I groan when the creamy liquid spills from the chocolate.
“Almonds.”
He keeps going and going, but it’s not until we get to the coconut one that I have a visceral reaction, reaching forward and grabbing his nape, dragging his lips to mine. Our kiss is one of chocolate and coconut, him and me.
That heat hasn’t gone away, I realise. It’s just been banked, but it flares to life now, and blackberries fill the room but turns syrup sweet.
“Oh, Mei, you smell absolutely delicious,” Ronit snarls and lets out a growling purr.
The sound goes straight into me, and my whole body gets tingles. I pull back from Canto gasping, but he chases me, straddling my body as his lips find mine again.
Is it wrong that I like that I drive them to this level of aggression? No, it’s not wrong. I think about my nest, but I’m not ready for it yet.
My instincts drive me, heat sizzles, all I can think about is them and that I want more.
Abruptly, another scent marries with the blackberry, something almost bitter, sharp, but not unpleasant.
“What’s that?” Brio murmurs and leans in. “Oh, god, what is that?”
He shoves me sideways so my shoulders and head are in Leaf’s lap, whose heavy and thick cock is throbbing right near my face.
“I need it, I need more of it,” Brio says urgently, his words slur, and he sounds feral.
“Look at his eyes, they are almost black,” Ronit says in alarm.
“Lirin’s, too,” Canto growls.
I arch my back, and Brio pushes my robe apart, licking up my sternum and biting the skin just under my collarbone. I hiss, and the scent gets stronger.
Brio sucks on my skin, dragging his teeth over the curve of my breast until he gets to my nipple. He sucks it into his mouth and flicks his tongue over it, while his fingers press into my saturated cunt.
I spread my legs wider.
“Yes! More.”
“She’s doing it,” Canto says in alarm. “It’s coming from her.”
“She’s got an aphrodisiac pheromone? Something stronger than the heat?” Reed grumbles.
“No,” Ronit says, but I hear his words as if he’s a long way away. “This is her heat. She’s tumbled into it.”
Brio presses my inner thighs wider, as wide as they can go, his fingers roughly biting into my skin, and then he slides in. I moan and rock my hips, trying to take him further into me, but he holds back.
He suddenly shoves forward, and I feel his cock pull at my walls. I groan and claw at his back.
Brio snarls and surges forward, his cock vibrating furiously inside me.
Fingers stroke over my sensitive skin, touch is so intense it’s almost painful. I pant and rock against my alpha, clinging to him.
The heat inside me gets hotter and more intense. When I clamp down on him, my body shuddering, I have one rogue thought. I need them all.
Brio’s knot holds us together, stretching me wide as his mouth moves over my neck, sucking and scraping.
He’s growling and still rutting into me, even when he stands up and walks us deeper into the house. The rest of the pack follow like a dark promise.
“Brio,” I murmur.
He doesn’t answer. Not in words. He claims my mouth, his hands drag through my hair.
“Mine,” he whispers as he drops us onto the bed, grinding his knot deeper into me.
Except he doesn’t sound right.
Alarms trip inside me, and I pull my mouth away from his drugging kiss, only to fall into a coconut haze as Canto takes possession of me. Brio and his knot pull away, leaving me feeling horribly empty. I let out a whine of protest.
Canto rolls me onto my stomach and licks the sweat from my skin.
“Canto?” I pant, curling my fingers in the material on the bed.
He pulls my hips up and presses his fingers in deep. I groan and push down against him.
“I need you on my knot,” he says in a rough explosion of sound.
Again, something doesn’t sound right, but as he removes his fingers, he presses his cock to my entrance and pushes in.
It burns!
I let out a shocked gasp, struggling not to convulse on him. Electric zaps and a burning trail of pain erupt inside me, mixing with the pleasure. Heightening it.
I let out a sharp cry as he thrusts his hips against me, burying himself deep. Those zaps continue, dancing along sensitive nerve endings, but the pain is secondary, the pleasure is overwhelming.
“You feel so good,” his unhinged voice whispers. “I want to stay like this forever.”
I lift my head, trying to sort out the real from the fake.
“Siri, call Diablos!” I shout in desperation.
Canto snarls. “You dare say another alpha’s name while I am buried deep inside you?”
For a minute, I lose all track of my intentions. Canto twists and rolls his hips, expertly obliterating any thought from my mind.
“Hello, Sirens, what can I help you with?”
The collective aggression turns the room ice cold. Canto pulls me under him and against his chest, snarling low in his throat.
“Something’s wrong,” I pant out. “We need help.”
“On my way.”
Only Leaf is silent. The Sirens let their displeasure known in hisses and darkly moving trails of their aggressive scent.
Canto knots me, and I burn. I scream, but then I hear a phone.
“Siri, answer the phone on speaker,” I gasp out, determined to protect them at all costs.
“I’ve been calling for ten minutes.”
I pant. “Sorry.”
“Good news, bad news.”
I moan when Canto bites my earlobe and presses his cock deeper into me.
“You appear to be in heat. No one can get close because Leaf has blocked off the entire cliff. There are coils of dragon everywhere, but I caught a faint whiff of your scent. You are absolutely in heat. Please stay with your alphas and don’t try to run.”
“You all said the heat would make me mindless. I’m not mindless. I’m coherent, oh!” I gasp as Canto bites my shoulder and drives his knot in just a fraction deeper.
Canto drags out of me, chuckling darkly. “He can’t please you like I can.”
“Ew,” Diablos grumbles.
Lirin straddles my face. “Open wide, little omega.”
“Wait one second,” I purr at him, trying to sound sexy, while hiding that I’m panicking.
“How am I in heat? They are mindless? What went wrong?” I shout. “Everyone said it would be me who would be out of control.”
“Well, it would appear that maybe your heat works like a reverse heat. And it makes the males crazy. So, yeah, um, have fun?”
“I am not crazy,” Lirin says and presses his cock to my lips. “Open up, no more talking to him, or I’ll go and cut his balls off and feed them to the great whites.”
I clamp my lips together.
“A couple of days. It will only last a couple of days. Nothing is getting in there, and you aren’t getting out. Enjoy it. Consider it a paid holiday.”
“Wait!”
Lirin presses his cock, no, wait, cocks into my mouth. They ripple and surge into me as if they are independently alive. I choke, but the taste has my eyes rolling, and the way he grabs my hair has me clamping my slick-coated thighs together.
“There, there. Just enjoy this. Ronit is going to take care of the intruder.”
My mouth gapes open. I try to pull free, but Lirin just holds my hair, pulling me deeper onto his cocks.
“Oh, shit!” Diablos snarls. “Now, Ronit, I’m outside. I’m just helping. Sorry, Mei, you are on your own.”
The call ends, and Lirin makes a sound of utter pleasure.
“Now that we are alone, let’s play.”
His cocks move. In my mouth, in my throat. They twist and roll, stroking my insides as they weep pre-cum that flares that heat inside me even hotter.
“Mm, that’s what I want,” he whispers. “Burn for me.”
A massive and long tongue flicks out and lashes me from my crack to my clit. I scream around Lirin’s cocks, arching upwards, spreading my thighs wider.
“Mine,” Leaf growls, and then that tongue is pressing inside me, forcing me wider than I’ve been before, tasting me in ways I’ve never been tasted.
Lirin strokes my face. “You look so beautiful like this, Mei. So completely undone.”
Leaf snarls and pulls back, disappearing as Reed takes his position between my legs. Lirin pulls out and slides down the bed.
I hear a sloppy kiss, and then Reed collapses on me, growling deeply.
“One more kiss,” he murmurs. “I just need one more, please.”
He’s begging for me?
I wrap my arms and legs around him. He thrusts his cock from my slick drenched folds, rutting against me.
Over and over, until I tilt my hips, and suddenly, he slips inside. He surges deep into me, letting out a pained groan into my neck.
“Need you.”
I stroke his back, unable to say a word past the lump in my throat. These are the words I’ve always wanted.
He pulls back, then thrusts in, slamming his knot into me.
I scream.
The sudden pain, the exquisite pleasure, has me arching off the bed so violently that I lift him as well.
“What?” I sob, confused. “What is happening?”
Lirin chuckles in my ear. “Barbed for your pleasure. Lots of little barbs that drag against you. When you knot, they will all sink in deep, and Reed will make you his inside and out,” he sings.
I pant, my head thrashing from side to side.
“Feel all those barbs? They feel so good, don’t they?” Lirin teases, biting my nipples softly.
I convulse and tremble, my body wracked with aftershocks.
“You’re in heat, Mei,” Lirin sings. “Let us take care of you.”
The five of them start to sing, and Leaf joins in with a hum. My panic ebbs, and I find myself humming with them, singing along to their violent and ardent song.
Losing myself in the heat.